Freshwater reservoir with the largest area is the Upper Lake. Location - North America. 82.4 thousand square kilometers covers the area of its water mirror. The lake is in 3rd place in terms of fresh water on our planet, and it is second only to Baikal and Tanganyika in terms of indicators. The fresh water content in the lake is 11.6 thousand km 3 . Depth on average - 147 m, the largest - 406 m.
Great Lakes
Where is Lake Superior on a map of the North American continent? It is located in the United States and Canada. The Upper Lake is one of the Great Lakes, a link from a chain of freshwater bodies located in eastern North America between Canada and the United States. The system consists of five lakes: Upper, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario. And only Michigan is wholly owned by the United States.
Other lakes are separated by a border. In Canada, Upper Lake is located in Ontario. Minnesota is located on the west side of the lake. In the southwest - the state of Wisconsin. The southern coast is in the state of Michigan.
The coastline is 4387 km long. The lake is 560 km long. In width reaches 260 km. The coastline is indented by bays and bays. On the north shore are rocks and cliffs. And the south coast has flat terrain.
Connections
The upper lake is considered the second largest on the globe and, as already mentioned, the largest freshwater reservoir in the world and the USA. It ends the journey from the Atlantic Ocean into the continent. All Great Lakes are connected with each other by rivers and canals. The upper one is inextricably linked with Lake Huron by the St. Marys River, whose length is about 112 km. It has a large number of rapids and rifts, in these places it is not suitable for shipping. That is why channels are created bypassing the thresholds. The upper lake still communicates with the Canadian lake Nipigon through a small river.
Occurrence
The bowl of the lake has the appearance of a depression of tectonic origin. Due to the large number of earthquakes, deep faults appeared. The bottom of the lake was leveled by glaciers, completing the work begun by the earthquakes. According to scientists, about 30 thousand years ago, North America in the eastern regions was covered with glaciers that came here from the north. These glaciers were unstable. They either moved north, leaving behind the lake cups, then again came here. When the glaciers finally left the territory of the eastern regions of the continent, a huge lake formed in this place, known in modern science as Algonkin. In area, it was very large and supposedly exceeded the size of Lake Baikal by 10 times. This lake did not last long. After a while, a lot of water left, which filled the St. Lawrence River. And after several millennia, the Great Lakes appeared on this place.
Uniqueness
These famous lakes are considered one of the great wonders of the planet. They are unique. The lakes form a hydrographic community, and it is very extensive, differing from other world lakes in size, volume of water and the configuration of the coastline. They are located 500 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean and 700 km from the Hudson Strait. They represent the largest lake system in North America, located in the upper and middle parts of the St. Lawrence River Basin.
"Sea road"
The Great Lakes are one of the main shipping lanes in eastern North America. To get from the port of Duluth on the Upper Lake to the source of the St. Lawrence River, you must overcome the path of more than 2000 km. The upper lake is the most alpine - 183.6 meters above sea level. The reservoir is fed by precipitation and the waters that the rivers carry.
Is the upper lake draining or draining?
Let's try to figure this out. The lake is a sewage, its flow occurs through the St. Marys River. From December to April, freezing occurs in coastal areas. Water level drops in the lake. Precipitation is also rare at this time, because there is not enough water to maintain the level in the lake.
The minimum level is usually in March-April. Then the ambient temperature rises and coastal snows begin to melt. Rivers quickly fill with water, and this leads to an increase in its level in the lake.
The largest volume of water in the Upper is observed in the summer, just at that time
heavy rains. The level fluctuation does not exceed 1 m, but sometimes it happens more. This is mainly due not to the influx of water, but because of the movement of air masses.
Seiche
The upper lake is not protected by mountain ranges, so the winds that come from the mainland or from the ocean freely walk around, causing unrest in the water.
Here you can observe a frequent phenomenon for this place - seiches. Giant waves form on the surface of the lake, which leads to the collapse of the coast. The upper lake is colder than all the other Great Lakes. In summer, the water warms up no more than 12 degrees. And at a depth it is almost constantly about 4 degrees.
Lake food
More than 200 rivers flow into Lake Superior. Nipigon is one of them, with a length of 48 km and a width of 50 to 200 m. One cannot help but recall the St. Louis River, whose length is 192 km. Such rivers as Pigeon, Brul, Belaya, and Stony flow into the river. All of them are no more than 100 km in length, but still contribute to the nutrition of the lake.
The islands
Lake Superior also has islands, some quite large. The largest is Isle Royal, it reaches 72 km in length and 14 km in width. On the Great Lakes, it takes 2nd place after Manitulinu Island on Lake Huron. Isle Royal now has the status of a national park, which is visited by ferries from the mainland.
In the north of the lake is the island of Mishipikoten, its length is 27 km, its width is 10 km. He is the kingdom of the wild. The 22 islands named Apostle Islands belong to the state of Wisconsin.
We also call the islands, which are the National Recreation Area of Michigan. These are Madeline and Grand Island.
Conclusion
There are many large cities near the lake, such as Duluth, Thunder Bay, Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie. From this article, you learned where Lake Superior is. Read about the history of its occurrence. We got acquainted with interesting facts, its location on the map and received other information. We hope you were interested.